The Gender Wage Gap

The gender wage gap is defined as the relative difference in earnings between men and women in the economy as a whole. For every dollar a man makes, his female counterpart makes roughly seventy-seven cents. Even if a men and women have the same educational background and work history the man will go home with a higher paycheck than the woman. This may actually lead to tension in the workplace and cause conflict in the office. This also includes female dominated industries- most notably, nursing. The number of men in the nursing industry has increased tremendously in the past decade. However, men are still in a clear minority. On average, “the average salary per year in 2011 was nearly $61,000 for a male nurse and just $51,100 for a female nurse” (Diamond, 2014). This leaves a difference of $9,900, which is indeed a large amount. Men and women are treated equal on paper but it is evidently not so in practice.

~Divyaansh Dulles